HS Football: Berea-Midpark spoils opening of new Amherst stadium

AMHERST — That's not how Amherst wanted to christen its stadium. The Comets played their first game at Spitzer Autoworld Stadium in front of a huge home crowd Friday, and Berea-Midpark spoiled everything with a 20-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Dylan Papushak to Tyson Clay with 1:19 left for a 20-19 Southwestern Conference victory. The Titans improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the SWC. Amherst dropped to 2-2, 0-1. "Dylan played phenomenal, he was in a battle all summer with Vince (Weaver) who starts with us," Berea-Midpark coach Jon Hunek said. "The fact that he threw two touchdown passes coming in cold from the bench just makes me so proud of that young man." Amherst opened the stadium in glorious fashion, playing keepaway from Berea-Midpark with an amazing 21-play drive that took all but 21 seconds of the first quarter, until the penalty bug derailed the Comets. Three straight major penalties left Amherst with a second-and-goal from their 47, which killed the opening drive. "We just can't shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties on offense and can't miss tackles on defense," Comets coach Tom Thome said. "That's football 101, you can't win games when you have all those penalties." The Titans took the honors of the first touchdown on the new field, actually scoring twice when a 60-yard catch-and-run by Dylan Maddox was called back on a holding penalty. Four plays later, though, sophomore Xaviere Harden hauled in a 27-yard TD pass from Weaver on fourth down for a 7-0 lead with 10:05 left in the second quarter. The Comets said heck with the long drives and covered 73 yards in just four plays with Payton Gilles (20 rushes, 150 yards) going 63 yards on the first play and Cy Christensen finishing off the drive from 1 yard to knot things at 7 with 8:47 left in the half. Amherst did put together another long drive, getting inside the Titans 10, but Berea-Midpark's defense stuffed Amherst on four straight runs to take over on downs and essentially kill the half. The Titans opened the second half by grabbing a 14-7 lead on a 12-yard TD toss from Papushak to Clay, but Amherst was able to answer on the first play of the fourth quarter when Christensen rolled right out of the pocket to buy time, then hit Bryce Colvin with a 27-yard strike on fourth down. The missed extra point left the Comets down 14-13. The Comets took their first lead when Colvin grabbed his second TD of the night, capping an eight-play, 66-yard drive with a 4-yard grab to go up 19-14 with 4:56 left in the fourth. The Titans took over at their 20 and methodically moved down the field until Papushak found Clay with a 20-yard toss on the ninth play to go up 20-19. After two kickoffs that went out of play, the Comets took over at their 42, but Christensen missed on his final three throws as time expired. "We never quit, but we have to look in the mirror and execute better," Thome said. "There is a long season ahead of us and there are a lot of goals that we want to achieve." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com.